A simple competition: win your weight in beer. =:D (They do note you'll be added to their mailing list - but, JW Lees do make some good stuff, notably Manchester Star, currently available in Sainsbury, possibly Morrison)

Jillette, who ranks pickpockets, he says, “a few notches below hypnotists on the show-biz totem pole,” was holding court at a table of colleagues, and he asked Robbins for a demonstration, ready to be unimpressed. Robbins demurred, claiming that he felt uncomfortable working in front of other magicians. He pointed out that, since Jillette was wearing only shorts and a sports shirt, he wouldn’t have much to work with.

“Come on,” Jillette said. “Steal something from me.”

Again, Robbins begged off, but he offered to do a trick instead. He instructed Jillette to place a ring that he was wearing on a piece of paper and trace its outline with a pen. By now, a small crowd had gathered. Jillette removed his ring, put it down on the paper, unclipped a pen from his shirt, and leaned forward, preparing to draw. After a moment, he froze and looked up. His face was pale.

“Fuck. You,” he said, and slumped into a chair.

Robbins held up a thin, cylindrical object: the cartridge from Jillette’s pen.

And so Elite: Dangerous not only makes its initial funding target, but also secures Mac support, and gains an extra ten ship designs, having breezed past the £1.5m mark. ^_^ And as a reply on the comments there noted, you can download the original and sequels as Windows applications, pre-bundled with emulators, over here - or, native versions of a clone of the original, Oolite, for OS X, Linux, and Windows. I oughtn't have gone with the support level I did, but - it was very much a one-off opportunity (being able, in a small way, to not just fund it, but actually help influence the course of the game!) and thankfully, the diet does mean not having to spend much on food and drink. ^_^;

And, a music video: I Have Your Heart, of a woman and a cat-man's forbidden romance. Flayrah notes "The 4’25” video is apparently not produced by an animation studio, but by three people: New York cartoonist/paper cutout artist Molly Crabapple, music composer Kim Boekbinder, and Melbourne stop-motion animator Jim Batt (and a small staff); it raised $17,280 on Kickstarter."

Could it be that publishers are finally grasping that physical media is not their future? Finally? Disney's announced that Wreck-It Ralph will arrive for download first, on Feb 12, with the discs debuting on Mar 5. Though, I dare say they'll still try to favor the discs with much more extras, still only sometimes even available as downloads.

Well, that's an.. interesting wrinkle to get out of paying SL rent. If land's group-owned, it appears it can be put up for sale, with no contributions from any members, and the land doesn't fall out of group ownership.

Hee! Oh, very much so. =:D It's amazing just how much coverage this has received, and not just in the tech/gaming press, but general news sites as well, including Auntie and Murdoch's UK plaything.

Even now, it's quite surprising to realise just how much of a sense of community's sprung up already - just check out the comments on its Kickstarter!

And yes, I do feel it'll be well deserved. ^_^ It somehow feels like the right time. And clearly, David Braben's laid a fair bit of groundwork already. With the design decision forum as well, I gain a sense that far from being fouled by too many cooks, we could wind up with something rather special, on launch day, and thereafter. (Hm.. hafta check if Graeme's on board as well =:)